super insulated

Bob, in response to your invitation to comment on the passive house you are designing for us, here are some thoughts. I see this first of all as an opportunity to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. The chance to show off the kind of…

I’m working on detailing out a smallish house in Greenfield, MA. We probably won’t go full Passive House on this but we will look at what additional costs and detailing it would take. And if we’re close… We are doing some novel (to me) stuff for the shell of the…

I am working on a 1400 s.f house in Massachusetts. Given that the walls are over a foot thick, the actual square footage is quite a bit less (about 1200). The extra insulation (and cutting edge building science) allows us to forgo a heat system other than a relatively inexpensive…

One of the projects I’m working on is an addition to and renovations of a ski home in Vermont. The main house is well built and and other than a maroon and pink bathroom and rather 80’s finishes, we are not doing anything too major to it. We are locating…

A House for Slow Living The original concept came to me in a dream (yes – I dream architecturally) I think the dream may have been generated by this image which has been on my bulletin board fora few years: The original sketch was called “a house for food” The…

Note: this blog entry was published on Green Building Advisor on March 31, 2014 I have been asked about my Passive House consultant training by other architects enough times that I though I’d write up a quick synopsis, one year later. For me, the Passive House training was very useful…

I visited a recent ski home project near Stratton mountain ski area to get some photos. The house is nearly complete. As usual there are things I would do differently next time and things that didn’t quite follow the drawings but that’s for me to know and no one else…

I had another comment recently from a builder who wants to build a house that breathes. I started to reply in an email and then decided to put it hereon the blog instead. What we are doing nowadays in the world of high performance homes is based on studying hundreds…

Sort of This is a schematic design for a local project I’m working on where I am doing master planning up front. See this post. After meeting with Gary MaCarthur to look at the whole site and master plan in terms of solar potential – the owners may, at least…

Here are some photos from a recent project. This is an addition to a huge old barn which had a fairly recent Timberpeg addition to it. I did some work with the addition plus a larger new addition in a Greek Revival style with wrapping porches to create a more…

Some images from the model. Of course I don’t think the clients can afford it but it’s a good starting point. This is a one car garage with a studio space above it, a rear yard screen porch and a mudroom connecting all these. We can treat the addition as…

Apparently, although I never got an email, I am now a Certified Passive House Designer!! What is Passive House ? – The passive house standard represents the highest level of energy efficiency and “green building”. – The passive house standard is where state and municipality energy codes are headed. –…

I visited the Stratton Project the other day to see how things were progressing. Flooring is going down (locally milled white oak) and plaster is going up. I’m very happy about the decision to plaster the walls on the main floor. The whole house inside and out is turning out…

Here is an example of a basic one-page-wonder construction drawing for a simple house. Not all the information is here to build a house but an expert builder can fill in missing details. For example, I put the stairs in the section with a very basic level of detail to…

I am working on this new small greek revival in Maine. Not the high style Greek Revival with huge columns like you see on banks and government buildings but the small, simple style that is so ubiquitous in New England and doesn’t get much attention but everybody knows. I’m designing…

Passive House New England Symposium Saturday, October 27th I went to the Passive House New England Symposium to see what’s what so to speak. I came a way with lots of good information about where to take my own practice, where the state of the art in building science is…

From Martin Holladay on Green Building Advisor in an artivle titled “Occupant Behavior Makes a Difference” Engineer things all you want but when you put Americans into a house the metrics tend to change. This is pretty funny. It didn’t take long to figure out what was driving the high…

I added a page to my website called MA Mod with a few photos from a recent project. I will be doing a post soon on construction administration – what it is and why you should hire your architect to provide this service

Now Taking orders for the plans for the Brattleboro Tiny House. The size is 16′ x 22′ with a sleeping loft. Super insulated double stud construction using advanced framing techniques. An excellent do-it-yourself project. Replace your old garage with something that can make an income as a rental unit or…

Plans are now up and for sale on one of the largest stock plan publishing houses houseplans.com in their “exclusive architects” section! My plan is to produce a series of similar houses increasing in scale and amenities and see how it goes. Houseplans.com is a progressive company with a good…

I have resumed work on Providence house with an eye toward the stock plan market. Here is a video flyby of the sketchup model as it stands. There are a few adjustments I need to make to the windows and trim. It is a structural model as well with floor…

Environmental Building News has a very thorough article on Passive house system and its relevance in North America. This is a very good and current third party state of the state of the art in energy efficient residential construction. Passive house represents an important step towards a zero energy home…

This from a few years ago… enjoy! West West house – a super-insulated hipped roofed and slightly midwestern Vermont farmhouse with amazing stonework, a concrete floored sunporch, a beautiful and minimal timber frame, American Clay stucco interior surfaces, solar hot water and a state of the art TARM wood heating…

Here are some recent photos of the Peru VT house. This is a modern farmhouse where we took a traditional and timeless New England form, came up with a great floor plan and then “played” with it. The result is some fantastic spaces. I love all four bedrooms and I…